


Do You Believe In Love?

by emma_anna_elisabeth



Category: Back to the Future (Movies)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, If Marty never traveled in time, Marty and his music, Mostly told through Jennifer’s eyes, Song: Do You Believe In Love (Huey Lewis and The News)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:15:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29061930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emma_anna_elisabeth/pseuds/emma_anna_elisabeth
Summary: Jennifer can feel the warmth transfer from his hand to hers. It floods between them, radiates like rays of gold. It sparkles, glitters; almost electric when it passes from his skin to hers. Her heart skips a beat.
Relationships: Marty McFly/Jennifer Parker
Comments: 16
Kudos: 5





	Do You Believe In Love?

**Author's Note:**

> We see Marty playing guitar quite a lot in the movies, but what does music really mean to him and what are Jennifer’s feelings towards it? How do music interact in their everyday life? What if the rejection during the band audition hit him a little harder than the film let us see? This fic is a little experiment with these thoughts. Perhaps not my best work, but I still hope you like it!
> 
> Obs! In this fic Marty never travels in time, so it’s set in the first original timeline.

They’re sitting by the campfire, his hand in hers. She can feel his smooth skin under her fingertips; how it stretches, ever so slightly, over his knuckles and veins on the back of his hand. She lets her thumb slide slowly over his; exploring it in silence; mapping the smallest of furrows and lines, every hair and mark. 

Her gaze wanders down to the hand that so tenderly holds hers. Her eyes sweep over it, carefully memorising every part. In her mind, she sees how his fingers dance across the guitar strings.  
When Marty plays, he forgets everything else. It’s just him and the guitar, joined by a bond she can’t understand; you can’t tell where the guitar ends and the boy begins. They’re one. 

Sometimes, she envies that guitar; the way he talks of it and the way he treats it. Marty loves the two of them: the guitar and her. Another girl might have asked him to choose between them, but not Jennifer. Deep inside, she knows she could never find the heart to do that. How could she ever ask him to choose her above his music? To Marty, music is the air he breathes and the blood that pumps through his veins.  
To take music away from him would kill her just as much as it would kill him; it would almost be equal to asking him to step in front of a train. She wouldn’t want that. Never. All she wants is for him to be happy. If he’s happy, she’s happy too. 

Jennifer can feel the warmth transfer from his hand to hers. It floods between them, radiates like rays of gold. It sparkles, glitters; almost electric when it passes from his skin to hers. Her heart skips a beat.

This night, this moment, this second, this… She’ll cut it out from her memory and lock inside a box, deep inside her heart. Safe from all horrors of the world, and when times get hard she’ll open that box of treasures and replay the memories in her mind. The memories that make her life worth living; the ones that tell her life is beautiful and full of wonders; the ones that make her heart beat just a little extra. 

She looks up at him, let’s her eyes linger on his features. His blue eyes are fixed at the bonfire before them, the flames reflect themselves under his big lashes. He blinks slowly and for a moment, those oceans of blue disappear. 

“Maybe I should stop trying.” Marty’s mumbling wakes her up. It’s like his words grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back to reality. She blinks, and when she opens her eyes again her heart sinks. It’s first now she sees the wrinkles between his eyebrows and the veil of gloom covering his face.  
“What do you mean?” She takes his hand in both of hers. 

“The audition. I just...” He sighs, takes his eyes off the flames. “No one wants to hear us play.” 

“That’s not true, I do.”

“I know.” Marty huffs and forces a smile on his lips. “It’s just that no one else does, no matter how hard I try.”

”Don’t worry. Another rejection isn’t the end, you just gotta try again.” She squeezes his hand. 

“I know, I know. I’m just so tired of trying and trying, over and over again”, he says, lifting his free hand to run it through his hair. Jennifer looks at him in silence, her eyes glitter with concern. 

“You can’t give up”, she says. “As I said yesterday, you’re good. You’re really _good_. Don’t throw it away.”

“I won’t.” Marty’s eyes flicker between Jennifer and the ground before he looks away. But before he even has the chance of doing so, her light fingers gently touch his chin and make him face her. 

“Promise me you won’t.” Brown eyes look deeply into blue. They’ve always been like that: the brown and the blue.  
Marty is blue; he’s the sea, wild and untamed, but still the calm in the middle of the storm. Sometimes the water lies perfectly still, mirroring the sky, and sometimes the waves roar in anger, crushing everything in their way.  
Jennifer is brown; she’s the earth, steady and comforting, safety. She’s a solid rock, the only thing that can take the massive impact of the water; his lifeline when he’s drowning in his own waves. She’s the rock that keeps him on the ground. 

Marty looks back at Jennifer, her eyes seem to look right through his soul. He wants to tell her what he’s thinking, but he can’t find the words. Million memories and thoughts sweep through his mind, like cloudy images that he can’t get a clear view of. Just before he can get a glimpse of them, they disappear and other ones take their place.  
He only manages to see a few. 

A glimpse of his fingers, a closeup of a G-string. Practice, practise, practise.  
Wrong notes, right notes, wrong notes again. Repeat, repeat. Chords, chords, cho- wrong! Right.  
Twelve-bar blues. Changes, changes, cha- _nono!_ \- changes. _Yes._  
Shaking hands.  
Sore fingertips, bleeding even, sometimes.  
Failure, failure, failure. _C’mon._ Wrong, wrong, wr- GOD! Frustration.  
_I give up._

Success.

Music flows through his mind, he breathes in slowly. The jury had no idea how hard he tries, how much he practises, how much it means to him. _I’m afraid you're just too darn loud._ The words echo in his head. Too loud. His heart sinks like a stone in the water; slowly seeing the sun disappear in the distance above and feeling the cold embrace it. 

“I…” he begins, but trails off. Blue eyes look away, brown hair falls into his forehead when he bows his head. “It’s pointless.”  
Jennifer tilts her head when his words reach her. ”I’ll never achieve anything. It’s just like Strickland says.” Marty’s words sound like a statement. She sighs and moves closer, lets her head rest against his shoulder. 

“Don’t care about what _he_ says”, she soothes, squeezing his hand again. “He’s an idiot, calling you all of those mean things.”

“Well, he’s not wrong...” Marty’s voice threatens to break. Strickland’s scoldings ring in his ears.  
_Why even bother, McFly? You don’t have a chance._ Strickland was right, Marty never had a chance. He never really had, everyone just assumed that he was just as incapable as they thought his dad was. They never saw Marty, they never really saw _him_.

“Yes, he is, Marty!” Jennifer sits up straight and looks him in the eyes, puts her hand on his arm. “He doesn’t know you, you ain’t what he says you are.”  
Marty meets her gaze, his eyes slice through her heart; they're glittering with tears. She can read the words written on his face, they shine bright in the darkness. _Yes, I am._

“I am a slacker. I’m always late, I’m unprepared, and- and I’ll never amount to anything.” He lifts his hand to his face and lets it slide down as he breathes out. Blue eyes are fixed at something in the distance.  
Jennifer shakes her head repeatedly and cups her other hand around his cheek; she carefully lifts his chin. 

“Nonono”, she says. “No, you’re none of that. Perhaps a little lazy sometimes, but you know what? We all are. Think about how much you practise, you’re _always_ prepared.” She pauses and swallows, raises her eyebrows in emphasis.  
“ You’re smart, fun and most important, you’re kind. You’re so many good things, Marty. You’re gonna get so far, so far.”

Marty's mouth opens and closes, his uncertain eyebrows move slightly. His lips press into a thin line and his chin quivers as he breathes out. Tears slip out of his eyes when he squeezes them shut and he instinctively raises his hand to cover his eyes. A sob rises from his lungs.  
“Sorry”, he mumbles and dries the tears off with the back of his hand. “I…”

“Ssh…” Jennifer bends over and lays her arms around him. “‘S alright”, she whispers, as she slowly rubs his back.

“I’m trying so hard but it…” Marty’s voice breaks and a new sob search it’s way up through his throat. He leans onto her, lays his head on her shoulder and buries his face in her hair. His arms embrace her as well, pulling her tightly to him.  
Jennifer can feel his chest rise and fall; his unsteady breaths vibrate against her ribcage. “It’s gonna be fine.”

“I don’t wanna give up”, he whimpers into her shirt. “Sometimes it’s just...” His voice disappears into thin air. 

“I know, I know.” She knows all too well. Sometimes it gets too tough, even for Marty. Sometimes you just have to let it out. 

“Look up”, Jennifer whispers. Marty sniffles and follows her gaze reluctantly towards the sky. “Look at them.” He can hear the smile on her lips. “All stars are dust, just gases, before they start to glow. That’s what they say in Physics class at least.”

“They do?” 

“Yeah, and look how great they turn out.”

Jennifer tangles herself out of Marty’s arms to look into his eyes. “You’re a star, Marty. You just need to wait till someone else discovers you too.” Her lips form into a smile and she lifts her hand to brush a couple of rebellious hairs out of his eyes. Blue eyes close and he leans his wet cheek against her hand.  
“What would I do without you?” The words are barely a whisper.

“You’d still be a star.”

Marty huffs and opens his eyes. They glitter in the dark, but the sadness is replaced by wonder. A smile forms on his lips and he lifts his hand to her face, lets his fingers slide down along the side. They move carefully, almost as if he's afraid of breaking the illusion before him; break the stillness of the water, see the image disappear in the rings caused by his movement.

She had just shown him the night sky and all its wonders, but the only stars Marty can see are the ones in Jennifer’s eyes. Everytime he lays eyes on her, he's struck by her beauty. Again and again and again. This time is no different. His heart skips a beat.  
This night, this moment, this second, this… It’s more than he ever could wish for, it’s more than he deserves. It’s moments like this that makes his world light up. She’s his lantern, his lighthouse. _I love her - gosh - I love her._

“Wait a second”, he suddenly says. A smug smile triumphs on his lips as he stands up and runs towards the car. Jennifer looks at him a bit confused, but when she hears how Marty opens the clasps to the guitar case, she amusedly rolls her eyes. He swings the strap over his head and turns towards her, his fingers start dancing slowly across the strings of his old acoustic guitar. 

“ _I was walkin’_ ”, he starts singing. His eyebrows are raised and he looks at her as he waits for her to recognise the song. “ _Down a one way street, just a-lookin’_.”

“Oh, you”, Jennifer breathes. A laugh passes through her lips. “Oh you’re good, you’re good.” 

Marty continues singing the verse as he sits down next to her. His fingers move by themselves, it’s like he’s never done anything else his whole life. “ _And I’m wonderin’, if you’ll stay for the night…_ ” Marty raises one of his eyebrows, looks at her meaningfully and Jennifer bursts into laughing.  
Jennifer huffs and joins him. “ _Do you believe in love? Oh, you’re makin’ me believe it too…_ ”

The warmth from the fire surrounds them and the orange light from the flames dance across their clothes. The tunes from the guitar flood through the air, enclose them. Their singing and laughing echoes over the lake. 

This night, this moment, this second, this… 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!! I hope you enjoyed the fic. I’m happy to answer any of your comments.  
> Lots of love! TPWK!


End file.
